Once in a lullaby: A portrait of Rainbow Families.

This auction is to support my ongoing photographic project 'Once in a lullaby: A Portrait of Australian Rainbow Families'.

The project is a recording and a celebration of Australian rainbow families in their homes.

This projects speak both to my identification with these families and to the overwhelming absence of such images in mainstream representations.

During the 2017 Australian marriage plebiscite I was shocked and saddened to witness the negative conversations around rainbow families and our children.

Our generation of rainbow families have seen and been a part of rapid changes to federal laws impacting our rights to have children. We are the first families to be directly impacted by these changes to federal laws that have allowed access to IVF procedures, changes to passports and birth certificates, changes in adoption laws, support for fostering and having more parent role models in our community.

We’re an important part of history and our stories should be recorded and told.

This is as much about what it means to be an Australian as it is about sexuality. There is no sensationalism here. It is an archive and a documentation of our rapidly changing community and the lives of people who offer brave new visions of what it means to be family in Australia today.

The project will culminate in a book featuring portraits and interviews with rainbow families from across Australia.

The book will be published and distributed by Melbourne publisher. M.33.

The money raised from this Auction will go directly to support the production of the book.

Mia Mala McDonald is a freelance photographer based in Melbourne.

McDonald holds a Masters of Fine Art degree from RMIT University, where she was recognised with a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence.

Her work has been published in many publications including the New York Times, The Monthly, Frankie Magazine and Vogue and has been exhibited at the NGV as part of Melbourne Now and in solo and group shows.

In 2019 Mia was a finalist in The National Portrait Prize with her portrait of writer Helen Garner and recently announced as a finalist in the Olive Cotton Prize and Martin Kantor prize for portrait excellence. In 2016 she was a finalist in both the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize Award in 2016 and the Iris Photographic Portrait Prize Award.

McDonald is deeply interested in people and this is the real essence of her work. Her process allows her to see things in a new way, small things in the way people behave and she strives to disclose these intimate personal narratives.

On a personal note I am mother to Sidney Mala (2.5 years) and share these mothering duties with my partner Steph.